Last wartime Nanyang transport volunteer passes away in China's Chongqing

CHONGQING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Jiang Yinsheng, the last remaining member of the wartime overseas Chinese mechanics volunteer group known as the Nanyang Volunteers, passed away at the age of 96 in Yongchuan District, Chongqing Municipality, on Saturday.

The Nanyang Volunteers group refers to some 3,200 overseas Chinese drivers and mechanics living in Southeast Asian countries who were rallied by famous business pioneer and philanthropist Tan Kah Kee in 1939 during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

Jiang was born in Calcutta, India, in 1927, and his ancestral home was in Guangdong, China. During the war, he joined the Nanyang Volunteers group to fight against Japanese aggression.

After the founding of New China, Jiang became a soldier of the People's Liberation Army, and after he left the army, he lived in Yongchuan and worked for a transportation company in the city.

From 1939 to 1942, the Nanyang Volunteers group transported 500,000 tonnes of military supplies, more than 15,000 auto vehicles and lots of civilian supplies through the Yunnan-Myanmar Road, and more than 1,000 of them lost their lives.